Lents will get a brewpub and brewery, with big help from the Portland Development Commission

With hefty financial help from taxpayers, Lents residents will soon have their very own neighborhood brewery and brewpub.

Leaders of the Portland Development Commission will vote next week to execute a 10-year lease with Z. Haus LLC for a PDC-owned building at 5716 SE 92nd Avenue. PDC executives already have agreed to give the team behind Z. Haus Brewing $450,000 in loans to start a family friendly German-style brewpub with an attached brewery. The city will spend another $649,000 on building improvements.

“The action will revitalize a vacant building in the heart of the Lents Town Center,” PDC executive director Patrick Quinton wrote agency commissioners.

Next week's vote could close the door on an unfortunate chapter in Lents' history, the PDC's failed attempt to help Ararat Bakery move from its longtime location at the eastern side of the Burnside Bridge to outer Southeast Portland.

Taxpayers bought the building at 92nd Avenue in 2009, and loaned the bakery/nightclub $653,000 for tenant improvements and working capital. Despite making 27 payments, Ararat’s owners managed to cut the principal by only $10 and eventually stopped paying rent at all.

PDC leaders evicted the bakery and wrote off its loans in 2011. The bakery space, which totals almost 25,000 square feet a quick walk from both the Lents MAX station and bustling Foster Road, has been vacant since then.

Neighbors in Lents have been clamoring for more basic services and amenities for years. The team behind Z. Haus initially looked at property in Hillsboro and Beaverton, and began working with the PDC in the hope of finding an appropriate spot in St. Johns.

Construction will begin in May, and the restaurant is expected to open in the fall.